Collateral Damage: Tara Meixsell's Book About the Gas Industry

Meixsell's journey of discovery brings to light negative impacts of the gas drilling industry.

The book, "Collateral Damage," has been described as "a chronicle of lives devastated by gas and oil development" and a grassroots to fight that development through political action and the combined resources and power of people working together and keeping each other informed.

Meixsell came to Wysox, PA, this month to speak to a group of 150 people at the behest of the Pennsylvania Landowners Group for Awareness and Solutions (PLGAS), headed by local activists Carol French and Carolyn Knapp.  Her message is that it is up to the people to learn what is going on around them when it comes to the gas and oil industry. 

Also speaking at this event was Christopher Csikszentmihaly, Director of the MIT Center for Civic Media.  He told the crowd that as much as 40% of the water forced into the well doesn't come back up.

Forty percent of the fracking water that goes down the hole doesn't come back up.  What happens to it? Where does it go?

Csikszenthihaly also told his Wysox audience that the greater the damage when things go wrong the less is revealed to the public.  Landowners who lease are also sworn to silence.  If they talk about what happened to them, any compensation for damages is cut off.

According to Csikszenthihaly, Bradford County will likely resemble Garfield County in "a handful of years."  Garfield is now the 12th most populated of the 64 counties in Colorado.  There are more well sites than residences in Colorado.

There are more well sites than residences in Garfield County, Colorado.

Credit is due to The Rocket-Courier, a Wyalusing, PA, weekly, and to journalist Wes Skilling, for covering this event and for providing its readers with crucial information on this important issue.

NPR's Terry Gross: How Safe Is Your Drinking Water?

An estimated one in ten Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains dangerous chemicals, parasites, bacteria, or viruses, or fails to meet federal health standards. Terry Gross, on her radio show, Fresh Air, on NPR today, talked with journalist Charles Duhigg who says that part of the problem is that water-pollution laws are not being enforced.

If you have a half hour to spare, sit down and listen in.

Mr. Duhigg covers many areas of concern, and Ms. Gross asks those probing questions that we wish a lot more interviewers would ask!

Click here to hear this excellent interview.

Charles Duhigg is writing a series for the New York Times entitled, "Toxic Waters," a series about the worsening pollution in American waters and regulators' response. Check out some of his installments:

Power Plants: Cleansing the Air at the Expense of Waterways

Agricultural Runoff: Health Ills Abound as Farm Runoff Fouls Wells

Industrial Waste: Pollution Grows With Little Fear of Punishment

Herbicides: Debating How Much Weed Killer Is Safe in Your
Water Glass

Watch a remarkable short video called "From Air To Water Waste," by clicking here. The video is on the right hand side of your screen in a tiny box!

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!
FIND OUT WHAT'S IN YOUR WATER